Wednesday, January 29, 2014

I love to be organized and I really enjoy organizing my crafting supplies and inventory. Usually this involves my embroidery, sewing and more recently, knitting supplies. But I also love working with paper, scrapbooks and making cards. Since I have made organizing binders for these other interests, I decided to make one for paper crafts too. I included a lot of pages. I have pages for all my scrapbooking paper, I can keep track of the name of the paper, the brand, where I bought it and other pertinent details:

I made project pages so that I can keep track of the different projects I make and what I used to make them. I like to make cards and envelopes:

I also like a nice "to do" page to help plan what I need to do to complete different projects:

And I like to keep an accurate inventory of all my supplies, ribbon

and craft scissors:

This has worked out really well for me, so I am selling the pages with binder covers in my shop. There are 44 pages and I think I have covered about everything a paper crafter would need!I also added a section for people who sell what they make. These pages can help keep an accurate record of each design, how the design is created, the materials needed as well as recording the pricing and cost breakdown for the product.

The organizer has three different color options, charcoal {my favorite}, powder blue and pale pink. Here is a look at the listing picture:

Thursday, January 23, 2014

I have an update to my Valentine's Day card project. You may remember that I am making with the front part of the card with embroidered fabric.

Once I had the fabric trimmed to the size I wanted, I needed to figure out how to finish the edges. I received so many helpful ideas in the comments section - thank you all! I decided to try stitching with black embroidery floss around the fabric, close to the edges:

I measured in 1/4" from the raw edge and did a running stitch all around.

I used black floss so that it wouldn't distract too much from my white stitched picture. This also solved the problem of how to attach the fabric to the paper. I just stitched through both layers.

Here is the inside flap of the card, you can see the underside of my running stitch {and all the needle holes ;) because I kept changing my stitch spacing}

I have a really fun idea to finish this up and I will post about it soon!

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

I have an update to share on my leprechaun embroidery project . You may remember from my last post that I was wondering about floss colors for the mushroom top {thank you for all of your helpful suggestions!} Well...since then, I happened to come across this fabric and I found it to be very mushroom looking and a perfect color. So I cut the top off of the mushroom pattern:

and traced it onto the wrong side of my fabric.

I cut it out of the fabric and turned it over. Perfect!

Now I don't want to worry about the raw edges of this fabric so I am trying out just using the blanket stitch around the border. I am spacing the stitches close enough together that hopefully, fraying edges will not be a problem!

I am going to stitch all the underneath parts before blanket stitching the mushroom top on. I have stitched all the way to the mushroom stem and so now I am finishing the stem. I decided to go with white floss and I am doing it in rows of split stitch - here is a little better view of the stem:

For the pot part of the pot of gold, I am back stitching in rows. I am using black but I think I will have to make the rim of the pot a slightly different shade to set it off from the pot. I think these gold coins are really going to look good:

Next will be the grass - this bright green is DMC #906:

I am using the same floss color for the leprechaun's little pants, I outlined them in backstitch just because I wanted to keep track of the line but I may change that. I need to think of a good stitch to finish these:

Thursday, January 16, 2014

I am making a card for Valentine's Day and I thought it would be really fun to try an embroidery card. I found some really nice black linen/cotton blend fabric, I had some left over from this tea towel I made a while back. I gathered up these Valentine images - I decided not to use the dove, I thought it was a little to big for my project. After I arranged all the pieces, I transferred the images onto my fabric using this wax free tracing paper. It was so easy to see the stitching lines in this bright yellow:

Then I stitched everything in white floss.

After the stitching was done, I trimmed the fabric evenly on all four edges. I love my new quilter's square :)

When it was all trimmed up, I placed it onto some white paper, this is presentation paper. I haven't glued it onto the paper or decided how I am going to finish the fabric edges. This fabric really likes to ravel and I like the fringed edge it leaves...any suggestions?

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

This beautiful stitch is the Three Sided Stitch - the latest stitch I have learned from 100 Stitches.

I found this to be a very easy stitch to learn. It is from the Drawn Fabric Embroidery category - meaning that the floss is going to be passing through the same holes in the fabric several times which leaves a nice open effect where each of the stitches meets.

To demonstrate this stitch, I am using perle cotton floss, this is DMC color number 742.

This stitch is worked from right to left, so the first step is to come up through the fabric on the right hand side of the stitching area.

Pull all the way through and now count four threads to the right and go back into the fabric.

Go back into the fabric and pull all the way through - this makes one straight stitch. Now come back up through the fabric in the same hole that the needle first emerged, pull through and

make a second straight stitch going back into the fabric in the same hole to the right:

Next, come back up through the fabric through the original starting hole and count up four threads above the straight stitches and count to threads to the right. Go into the fabric:

Pull through to make a straight stitch slanting to the right - make two stitches this way using the same holes:

Count four threads to the left and come up through the fabric:

Go back into the fabric in the same top hole from the previous slanting stitch - make two straight stitches using the same holes:

Now count down four threads and two threads to the right and go back into the fabric. You should be going back into the same hole that the needle very first emerged from.

Take two straight stitches. Now count to the left four threads and come back up through the fabric. Start the whole process over again.

Just continue until you have a nice line of stitching:

Here is a peek at the underside of the stitching:

I think this is a beautiful stitch. In 100 Stitches, the diagram depicts this stitch being done around a corner, I might have to try that next!

Thursday, January 9, 2014

I have a new project to share. I am just getting started on this one but since it is for St. Patrick's Day, I think I will have enough time to finish! As you can see, this is a crafty little leprechaun sitting on a mushroom and guarding his pot of gold. Here are just some of the floss colors I am considering...

Here are the candidates for the mushroom. For the stem, I like this beige {DMC #738}and for the accent lines on the stem, this honey color {DMC #783}. For the mushroom top, either red with white spots or maybe orange with white spots?

For the pot of gold, of course the pot will be black {DMC #310} and I am going to use a combination of metallic thread {Kreinik Metallics Fine Braid #002} and gold blending filament {Kreinik Metallics #002HL} for all his coins.

I still have a lot of color decisions to make for the leprechaun himself! I will keep posting on my progress.